Category Archives: Automobile Manufacturers

This week’s bankruptcy filing by General Motors, and indeed the current critical condition of the entire U.S. economy can be traced directly to the wholesale loss of decent paying American manufacturing jobs, primarily to China. Retailers like Walmart, whose stores are stocked predominantly with cheap Chinese-made goods are thriving, because financially desperate American families can’t afford to shop anywhere else (Walmart employs almost 1.5 million workers in the United States, and will be adding 22,000 more U.S. workers to its payroll in 2009; while this may sound like good news, it is anything but.) It is a vicious cycle of cheap imports, resulting in job losses and low wages for those still lucky enough to find work, that creates an even greater demand for cheap imports that are destroying the American economy even more. Probably the only thing that is limiting imports from China right now is the lack of available space on cargo ships. The U.S. government does not seem to be the least bit inclined to limit imports, despite the damage they are doing to our country.

Now, it appears that General Motor’s Hummer division is being sold to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company. We feel that dismantling what was one of the largest and oldest American corporations, and selling a portion of it to China is nothing short of treason. It’s also ludicrous. Friends, what you are witnessing is an acceleration of the destruction of the U.S. economy.

On a purely practical level, it won’t work. The type of American buyers who are attracted to a vehicle like a Hummer won’t want a Chinese vehicle. And as the U.S. economy continues to disintegrate because of exactly this sort of exportation of American brands and jobs, few if any Americans will be able to afford to buy a Hummer, or any vehicle, for that matter.

From a national security standpoint, selling yet another major American manufacturing company to China places America in grave danger. And remember… Hummer is basically a military vehicle, even if it has morphed into a family vehicle for soccer moms on American highways. We’ve said it before on this blog, and we’ll say it again… Anytime it desires, China will be able to bring America to its knees without firing a single shot. If China cuts off the supply lines that America has become dependent on, the United States will starve to death. And we won’t be able to defend ourselves either, because unlike during World War II, America’s manufacturing capacity has all but disappeared. If you think that melamine-laced pet food, lead-tainted toys, or toxic sheetrock from China are a problem, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

How bad are things getting for U.S. manufacturers? We went to the Home Depot recently to buy a few sheets of sandpaper, and everything they had was made in China. It appears that America can’t even manufacture sandpaper any more.

So stop worrying about North Korea or Iran or al-Qaeda or the Taliban. What you should really be worrying about are those shiny new Sichuan Tengzhong Hummers that will soon be rolling down America’s highways.

We wonder if they sell portraits of Chairman Mao at Walmart. There’s a bare wall in our living room where we could hang it.

Executives at The New York Times must be taking business strategy lessons from the same experts that have guided the once mighty General Motors to the brink of bankruptcy and needing to take federal bailout money to stay alive. Shares of GM, once considered a “blue chip” stock that was among the most highly regarded of all investments, and which were trading at close to $90 a share ten years ago, are now virtually worthless.

The New York Times has announced yet another round of price increases, the third in less than two years , that will hike the newsstand price of their Sunday edition to $5.00 or $6.00, depending on the geographic edition. The weekday New York Times increases to $2.00 ! And you still don’t get any comics. The price increases are effective June 1st.

$6.00 for a newspaper? Are they joking ? Perhaps New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. hasn’t yet taken notice of the new kid on the block. Mr. Sulzberger, we would like to introduce you to Mr. Internet. He’s big, he’s getting bigger all the time, and he’s eating your lunch.

The Internet is eating everybody’s lunch. This Time Magazine article names the ten most endangered newspapers in America. And according to this CNN article, at least 120 U.S. newspapers have folded since January, 2008.

Faced with a sharp drop in advertising revenue and falling circulation, the price increases at The Times are likely to just exacerbate the problems facing the newspaper. Price increases will inevitably produce a further errosion in circulation, which is sure to further weaken advertising income. A decision to increase prices at a time like this, for many businesses, is tantamount to committing suicide. We believe that the New York Times has made the worst possible decision at the worst possible time.

Our readers will note that we have not raised the cover price here at Routing By Rumor; reading our blog is still free!

Understandably, the bean counters at The Times are desperate. They’re being squeezed from all directions. But you have to wonder who made the strategic decision that may very well seal their fate. Perhaps a price decrease, coupled with an agressive advertising campaign would have been the right course to follow. We believe that with the increasing competition for readers that the Internet has created, along with belt tightening by consumers in the depths of this economic recession, and the drastically shrinking size (the number of pages) of newspapers over the last few years, including the Times, newspapers are increasingly becoming irrelevant to more and more readers. It’s not unlike a phone company that keeps increasing it’s rates, in an attempt to offset the loss of revenue from customers who are dropping their traditional phone service, and using cellphones exclusively. Price increases will only serve to accelerate the trend.

Will the New York Times disappear completely? We fully expect to see a copy of the New York Times on the newsstand in the near future, with a headline of “THE END”. The fact that you are reading this blog, when you could be reading The New York Times instead, isn’t helping the Gray Lady one bit. We believe that their print editions are in mortal danger,with The Times becoming an online-only newspaper.

Amid the pandemic of shrinking products that is sweeping the nation, its nearly impossible to find a half-gallon container of ice cream that is still a full half-gallon, or 64 ounces.

First, manufacturers, including one of the downsizing leaders, Breyers (Unilever), shrunk their half-gallon ice cream containers to 56 ounces. More recently, almost all brands have downsized yet again, to 48 ounces (1.5 quarts). See our previous article about Breyer’s shrinking their ice cream containers. These days, the freezer at Routing By Rumor headquarters usually does without ice cream. Funny, but when we walk down the frozen food aisle in the supermarket and see the miniaturized containers of ice cream, we loose our taste for the product.

By the way, we realize that we may be jumping to conclusions by blaming the ice cream manufacturers for cheating us out of our hard-earned ice cream. It is entirely possible that this is what is actually going on.

But ice cream lovers (and lovers of value) rejoice ! If you shop at Costco Wholesale, you will still find full half-gallons of “Kirkland” ice cream. Sixty-four creamy, delicious, luxurious, decadent, fat-laden ounces. At about $4.50 per half-gallon, it’s less expensive than the anorexic-looking downsized containers of name-brand ice cream at the supermarket, which contain 25% less product. And Costco’s house brand of ice cream is available in any flavor you like, as long as it’s vanilla. That reminds us of what Henry Ford said about his Model T back in 1909. Poor Henry. He never knew the joy of shopping at Costco.

Henry Ford with his Model T Ford

One of the tenents of shopping at Costco is that you sacrifice variety for value. You also have to buy a carton of two half-gallons at a time, but how many people are going to complain that they are forced to fill up their freezer with ice cream ?

One thing you won’t have to sacrifice is quality. Costco branded products have never disappointed us. We have found them to always be superior to the national brands in quality and/or value. Here’s a particularly stark example. Gallon containers of milk are $2.25 at Costco. Many local stores charge more for a half-gallon of milk than Costco charges for a gallon ! There are many items at Costco that are priced at less than half of what you’d pay at your local supermarket.

Lest you think that we are little more than shills for Costco, you’ll want to know that we aren’t crazy about everything at Costco. While many items at Costco might be slightly less expensive than your supermarket’s everyday prices, you’ll pay less, sometimes a lot less, at your local supermarket when it’s on sale. Meat and poultry are perfect examples of this. And when you consider that many items at Costco are sold in huge packages, it won’t be a bargain if you have to throw away half of it because you couldn’t finish it before it went bad. For instance, a 25 pound sack of flour, a gallon of mayonnaise, or a five gallon jug of vegetable oil are just a bit more than we need. An interesting thing about these institutional-sized packages is that in many cases, the price per pound/quart or whatever unit of measure is used, is not significantly different from your normal supermarket-sized packages. With some items, such as Del Monte or Libby ‘s canned vegetables, you sometimes end up paying more per can at Costco, despite having to buy a case of a dozen or so cans of peas or string beans, than you would if buying a single can at the supermarket. Same thing goes for cans of soda (“pop”, for our Southern readers). We think that in some cases (pun intended), Costco hopes you think you’re getting a bargain simply because you’re forced to buy such large quantities at a single time. Call it “warehouse club buying momentum”, if you will. When you get home and start calculating whether that two-gallon jug of mustard that will last you for the next twelve years was really a good buy, you start to have some regrets, even though it was only nine cents an ounce. The bottom line is that you have to keep your guard up at all times when shopping at a warehouse club. For us, we’re better off purchasing many items at a local supermarket.

When you factor in the obligatory ID check at the entrance to Costco, which is guarded by Cerberus himself (good doggie !), and the veritable strip search before they’ll let you leave, a trip to Costco isn’t a bowl of cherries (but it is arguably a bowl of vanilla ice cream). At least Costco doesn’t conduct a cavity search. We get enough of those when we visit our dentist.

Even if you don’t have a Costco membership, you can still do better when you shop at your local supermarket. While most supermarket half-gallon house brands of ice cream have shrunk to 56 ounces, they are still a better value than the 48 ounce containers that have become the new standard among the name brands, and the house brands are usually very good quality.

Now, if Costco can manage to keep their half-gallon containers of Kirkland ice cream a full half-gallon, why can’t all the the other brands manage to do the same ? That has to qualify as one of the great mysteries of the Universe.

This article will be of interest to anyone replacing the rear view mirror in their General Motors (GM) or other vehicle, whether you are purchasing a replacement mirror from GM SPO, Gentex, Donnelly, or another manufacturer.

Installation information is included for Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY), including wiring harness connector pinout data.

Perhaps the most valuable tip we can give to a vehicle owner planning to purchase a replacement mirror is COMPARE PRICES !

The U.S. government can throw as many billions of dollars at General Motors as they wish, but they’re unlikely to change the fundamental problems at the automaker. Problems that have brought what was once a cornerstone of the American economy to the brink of extinction, dependent on a government bailout for it’s survival.

GM is not competitive for many reasons. They are hobbled by high labor costs. They lag in innovation, particularly in the area of electric and hybrid vehicles. In our opinion, they can’t compete with Japanese auto manufacturers on quality (or perceived quality) or customer loyalty. They’re certainly not competitive on pricing when compared to aftermarket parts suppliers. For most vehicle repairs, we think you’ll spend a lot less, and get a better job done at a private garage, then you would at a GM dealership. This might come as a shock, but in our opinion, Mr. Goodwrench isn’t.

As we’ve stated previously, we believe that their new vehicle warranty isn’t worth the paper its printed on. And GM seems to follow pricing policies usually associated with companies that sell hammers and toilet seats to the Pentagon.

Case in point…

Our GM vehicle was built with an auto-dimming electrochromic rear view mirror. Some rear view mirrors in late-model vehicles are marvels of modern technology, containing On-Star controls, handsfree cellphones, compasses, thermometers, back-up camera displays, garage door openers and other gadgets. But our mirror is just an auto-dimming mirror, with none of these other bells and whistles (see this NY Times article on these “bells & whistles”). On most of the auto dimming mirrors that we’ve seen in GM vehicles, after a few years of service, the magic liquid inside tends to leak out of the mirror. This either renders the dimming feature inoperative, fogs the mirror, or leaves it with an uneven or blotchy reflective surface.

For the past few years, the liquid crystal stuff (or whatever the chemical is) in our mirror has been leaking out, increasingly producing areas on the mirror’s surface that are either always clear or always dark. We finally decided to replace the mirror.

We checked with our friendly GM dealership’s parts department. They quoted us a price of $284.00 for a replacement rear view mirror, excluding the cost of installation.

Almost $300.00 for a rear view mirror ? Sounded awfully expensive to us, so we started to look at aftermarket mirrors. Virtually all American cars use a standard “wedge” type glass mount. The mirror attaches to a glass-mounted “button”, which hopefully stays attached to the windshield when you remove your old mirror from the vehicle.

Our search for a replacement mirror lead us to products manufactured by two predominant manufacturers of automotive mirrors, Donnelly (now called Magna Donnelly?) and Gentex (see company info). It seems that Donnelly sells exclusively to automotive manufacturers (OEMs), and not to the automotive aftermarket. Gentex sells to OEMs (probably the vast majority of their business), but they also sell their products to aftermarket suppliers (in our case, through a distributor named Mito Corporation).

We ended up purchasing a brand new, in the box, Gentex electrochromic rear view mirror that is virtually identical to our vehicle’s original mirror, for under $70.00, including shipping ! That’s less than a quarter of what General Motors wanted for a replacement mirror.

When you consider the fact that GM certainly pays much less for mirrors than the RoutingByRumor Corporation does, that probably equates to a markup of 400%, 500% or more. What word best describes that sort of profit margin ? “Criminal” might be a bit too strong. How about egregious. How about unconscionable. How about stupid ? How many businesses that try to fleece their customers are able to stay in business ? It certainly seems to indicate that GM doesn’t make their money selling cars. They make their money (or at least they did) by selling parts and service; Service that we’ve never been very impressed with in the first place.

The only caveat is that we had to replace the wiring harness connector that powers the mirror, because the Gentex mirror uses a 7-pin connector, while our original equipment Donnelly mirror used a 3-pin connector (our vehicle does not have auto-dimming external mirrors, and the Gentex mirror we installed does not have a temperature or compass display). But replacing the connector was a quick and easy procedure. The hardest part was getting the old mirror off of the windshield. Maybe it helped that we popped our Stevie Nicks album “The Other Side Of The Mirror” into the CD player while we installed our new mirror. To quote Stevie, “This is me talking to you. This is me talking to ya”.

The Gentex mirror we purchased came with very limited hookup information. We found the following pinout data on the Web, and we’re guessing that this information will apply to all Gentex mirrors that use a 7-pin connector.

JST "VH" Series Connector Housing (8-pin version shown)

If you’re trying to figure out what type of connector Gentex (and Donnelly) use on their mirrors, our research indicates that the 7-pin Gentex harness connector (as well as the 3-pin harness connector on our original Donnelly mirror) are “VH” series connectors, from JST Manufacturing. Their U.S. website is at www.jst.com. View JST’s data sheet for the VH series connectors here. These connectors (and the necessary crimp terminals) are available from Digi-Key.

We’re not sure if the wiring color coding is standard on all vehicles, so we would be more concerned with the function associated with each pin on the connector (pin numbers are molded into the connector housing on the wire-side of the connector, but you might need a magnifying glass to read them).

WARNING: Before you begin working on your mirror’s wiring harness, we strongly suggest that you either pull the fuse(s) that protect your accessories (ACC, RAP, ACC1, ACC2, etc., depending on your vehicle), as well as the fuse that protects your backup lamps. In lieu of pulling the accessory fuse(s), remove your key from the ignition and open a door to deactivate the Retained Accessory Power (RAP) circuit, if present and utilized by the mirror. If you really want to play it safe, disconnect your vehicle’s battery, following your vehicle manufacturer’s recommended procedure (for your safety). This will prevent you from blowing a fuse, should you inadvertently short or ground a lead while working on your mirror’s wiring harness.

Not all Gentex mirrors or all vehicles will utilize all pins, but we believe pins 1 – 5 should be functional on all Gentex mirrors. If your experience differs, please let us know by posting a comment to this article.

Pin 3 is used to clear the mirror when the vehicle is placed in reverse. (DO NOT connect pin 3 to ground, since this will blow a fuse (or possibly damage your mirror) when you put the vehicle into reverse gear.)

Pins 4 & 5 are used to control outside mirrors on vehicles equipped with auto-dimming outside mirrors.

Pins 6 & 7 are used on mirrors that incorporate a temperature display. If a temperature probe is connected, either lead from the temperature probe can be connected to either pin.

Of course, your best source of information is your vehicle manufacturer, or the manufacturer of your new mirror. The above information is believed to be correct, but we take no responsibility for its accuracy.

A Volt-Ohm meter is an indispensable tool for any installer, and we recommend that you use one whenever working on your vehicle’s electrical system.

In our opinion, the auto-dimming feature of the Gentex mirror performs as well as, or better than, our original equipment Donnelly rear view mirror, even taking into account how it operated when our vehicle was brand new. We saved more than $200.00 by not buying the mirror from GM, and probably much more than that, if the dealership would have installed the new mirror for us. The Gentex mirror we purchased appears to be manufactured in the U.S.A. (see this article about their Zeeland, Michigan plant & headquarters buildings), and came with a three-year warranty. We said the Gentex mirror “appears” to be made in the USA, because the only indication we were able to find was the letters “U.S.A.” on the carton label in 2-point type. Not “Made In U.S.A.” or “Assembled In U.S.A.”. Just “U.S.A.”. We’re left to guess that Gentex may be embarrased to admit where the mirror is manufactured. If their products are indeed made in the USA, why don’t they state that fact prominently on the carton, with “MADE IN U.S.A.” clearly visible, like they are proud of it !

We always welcome the opportunity to buy products made in America. We think that buying American made goods, and supporting American workers, is the best way to repair the failing U.S. economy. The U.S. Government’s economic stimulus plans certainly won’t do that.

Let’s hope that if we should ever have to file a warranty claim with Gentex or Mito (their aftermarket distributor), that they honor their warranty better than General Motors has, on the numerous occasions that we’ve had problems with GM products.

So the question we are left to ponder is this… Why does General Motors think it can gouge consumers for replacement parts ? If you said “because they’re General Motors”, think again. In our case, they couldn’t. And when you consider the fact that they are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, begging for federal bailout money, it’s clear to us that their policies, including their pricing policies, are a failure. All of the GM dealerships that have gone belly-up, and those who continue to struggle to survive, in an American new car market that has all but evaporated, are testament to their failed business model. And of course, the decrepit U.S. economy doesn’t help either.

Ya know, our mention of Stevie Nicks’ album “The Other Side Of The Mirror” is quite appropos, because when our GM dealer gave us their price for a new mirror, we suddenly recalled the advice that Alice received from the Mad Hatter… “Better run for your life”.

FoMoCo, or The Ford Motor Company, the automobile manufacturer that gave America what this Wikipedia article calls “the barbecue that seats four”, the exploding Ford Pinto of the 1970’s, is back in the news because of another possible safety problem.

It seems that at least 1.05 million 2007 model year Ford vehicles, including a dozen different Ford models, may have been assembled with Chinese-made rubber valve stems that are falling apart after about a year of use. Apparently, Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corp. (a subsidiary of Topseal Auto Parts), the Chinese company that made them for Ford, might have had a quality problem which allows the rubber to dry out and crack after being exposed to the atmosphere for a few months. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating the problem since at least early September, meeting with Ford officials on Sept. 10. The NHTSA has asked Ford for information about the valve stems, but is not requiring a response from Ford until early next year.

Ford has acknowledged complaints from vehicle owners, but would not say how many reports they have received involving possibly defective valve stems. They have also said that they don’t think it is a safety issue. Well, if you’re not a driver of, or a passenger in a Ford vehicle, we would probably agree with them.

Here’s a report sent to the NHTSA by a Massachusetts company that looked into the valve stem problem. From reading their report, which contains comments from affected vehicle owners, it would appear that the company, Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, was retained by the NHTSA to look into the problem, but we are not certain that this is the case.

It’s never a good thing when your valve stems decide to let loose while you’re traveling down the highway at 65 MPH. Come to think of it, there’s probably never a good time for your tires to suddenly go flat. For the sake of anyone traveling in a Ford vehicle, hopefully any leaks will be minor, and will be noticed before causing a catastrophe.

The bean counters at Ford that decided they could save 2 cents (or whatever) on each valve stem if they bought them from China, must be mighty proud of themselves. Now, at a time when the American automobile industry is already hurting big time, Ford may end up having to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to recall more than a million vehicles, to replace parts that cost a few pennies each. Then there’s the public’s loss of trust, which will probably cost them much more than that. Smart. Real Smart.

We don’t mean to single out Ford for what may be foolish cost cutting. We’re sure the entire American auto industry is guilty of similar bad decisions.

Despite the fact that you can see and touch the valve stems to inspect them, if large numbers of vehicles require valve stem replacement, it will be a logistical and financial nightmare for the companies involved. It will require removing all of the tires from the vehicle, including the spare, dismounting the tires from the wheels, removing and replacing the valve stems, remounting the tires on the wheels, balancing all of the wheels, and then reinstalling them on the vehicle. There’s no shortcuts to the process. And where do you get five million high quality valve stems in a hurry ? Tire shortages are another possibility, if valve failures or recall campaigns result in large numbers of tires being replaced as a result of the problem.

In addition, if defective, damaged or worn tires are present, we would think that remounting them on a vehicle could pose a liability issue for Ford or any other company doing the recall(s). Telling an owner that brings in their vehicle for a set of no-charge replacement valve stems that they will have to spend six, seven or eight hundred dollars for new tires is sure to create big problems, even if it’s absolutely true and necessary. And with the economy the way it is, you can bet there are plenty of Americans riding around on tires that have seen better days.

If Ford ends up recalling more than a million vehicles to replace the valve stems, it will be interesting to see where the replacement parts come from. Will Ford have learned a lesson, and use American made valve stems, or will they just buy a couple of million more Chinese valve stems? Nothing would surprise us.

It also wouldn’t surprise us if this potential problem is not limited to 2007 model year vehicles, or to vehicles manufactured only by Ford. It might even involve any vehicles that have had new tires installed in the last few years, since tire dealers will normally replace the valve stems when installing new tires.

That hissing sound you hear coming from your garage just might not be a snake, after all.

Hanesbrands is giving up on workers in Central America as well, including Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras. Apparently, not even low paid workers in these countries can compete against China. While it looks like most of these jobs are going to China, the company also said they will be moving production to plants in Vietnam and Thailand. It’s probably just a coincidence that these may be some of the worst countries on earth, in terms of worker exploitation (see “Secrets, Lies and Sweatshops“, Businessweek, 11/27/2006).

Al Norman over at The Huffington Post has written an excellent piece about Hanesbrands’ abandonment of American workers. He puts the blame squarely on retailers like Walmart, and the consumers that flock there looking for cheap goods. In fact, he calls Walmart “the travel agent for Hanesbrands”. Also check out our article from last December, “The Walmartization Of America“.

Take a look at Hanesbrands’ CEO Richard A. Noll’s total annual compensation at Forbes.com. We would have less of a problem with the top management at a company receiving obscene levels of compensation if they were able to provide employees with secure jobs, and pay them decent wages. We’ve read opinions that most all CEOs at U.S. corporations are good, decent, intelligent people, and we trust that Mr. Noll fits that profile. But when large numbers of your employees are getting pink slips, and you are closing many of your factories, it seems to us that the pain should be shared by the most highly compensated employees at the company. If top management doesn’t see fit to spread around the pain, then the company’s directors should address the issue. Come to think of it, if Hanesbrands’ manufacturing is moving to low-cost places like China and Vietnam, perhaps their CEO position should move there also, to be closer to their workers. You could probably find a very capable CEO in Ho Chi Minh City, who would take the job for about 50 cents a day.

Do you think it’s possible for someone like Mr. Noll to comprehend the impact of the plant closings on an employee who has spent their entire career in a North Carolina textile factory, and is now told that their job is being sent to China? If you do the math, it would seem that if Mr. Noll and other executives at Hanesbrands took a modest cut in their annual compensation, Hanesbrands could afford to keep at least one of their North Carolina plants open, and many of their loyal employees on the payroll. It would sure be interesting to hear some of their soon-to-be-jobless employees’ opinions on the subject. Obviously, making tons of money is nice, but at some point, doesn’t the voice of reason (or perhaps conscience) tell you what the morally right thing to do might be ? Dining on Prime Rib is nice, but we would have trouble swallowing if we were surrounded by people who were starving to death. It’s also all about loyalty, which seems to be in terribly short supply in the American workplace, in the executive suite, as well as on the factory floor.

We believe, and we’ve written previously, that the loss of jobs and manufacturing capacity in the United States is at the root of our current economic woes. The withering stock market, the banking and real estate crisis, the credit crunch, the decrepit state of the U.S. auto industry and the weak U.S. dollar are all symptoms of an economy decimated by companies who have abandoned the American worker, in search of profits in places like China.

You know, those cheap Hanes socks, underwear or other garments at your local department store may not be the bargains they appear to be. Actually, you might not be able to afford the type of bargain that Hanes is offering !

Let’s say that you’ve had it with companies that have moved their manufacturing to China. This mom did, and she decided to boycott all Chinese-made goods for one year. She is a reporter, and wrote about her quest, in “A Year Without China: One Mom’s Fruitless Quest To Boycott China”. Her experience is quite interesting, and includes a futile attempt to avoid Hanes products made in China.

Last week, we were reading the New York Times, when an ad practically jumped off the page at us. With the title “Even The Rope We’re Hanging Ourselves With Is Made In China”, it echoes our feelings about what is wrong with the U.S. economy. A play on Lenin’s quote “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”, to be sure, but also very true with regard to the state of the U.S. economy.

The “rope” ad is from an organization we had never heard of, called The Institute For America’s Future. We urge you to visit their website at www.ourfuture.org. They are warning America about exactly the same things we’ve been writing about; the trade deficit, the exporting of American jobs, the loss of manufacturing capacity, and the dependence on foreign oil.

Doctor Bush and his band of merry economists can throw 700 billion band-aids at the problem, but that will have little effect. The patient is hemmorhaging, and unless the source of the bleeding is addressed, all the band-aids in China (or all the tea in China) won’t save the patient. President Bush has recently resorted to his emergency “fireside chats” with the American public, making his morning televised appearances to try and reassure the nation in the face of the economic meltdown. We think we can safely say these little pep talks have done nothing to calm Wall Street, or reassure the man on the street. They are too little, too late, from an American President who really doesn’t seem to get it.

And look at the $85 billion bailout of AIG, a company in such bad financial shape that they could afford to squander close to a half-million bucks on an “executive retreat” at a California resort, just days after lawmakers signed off on their bailout. But then, when your rich uncle is writing you a check for $85 billion, that hotel tab probably looks like pocket change. Talk about laughing all the way to the bank. It’s like giving a few bucks to a homeless person begging on the street, who then uses your money to hire a limo to take them to the welfare office. If AIG’s behavior isn’t criminal, it certainly should be.

And of course, when Robert Willumstad, the Chief Executive at AIG (he lost his job a day after the federal bailout was announced) is hauled before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and asked to justify the squandering of money on a “retreat” at a California resort, which included $23,000 spent on spa treatments for AIG employees, he understandably pleads ignorance, telling the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he was “not familiar with the conference”.

In the last week or so, we’ve witnessed what historians will refer to as “The Stock Market Crash Of 2008”. The crash, proceeded by the economic epidemics of layoffs, home foreclosures and bank failures would seem to indicate to reasonable people that the U.S. economy, at the very least, is in a recession. In response to the crumbling economy, the U.S. government has taken unprecedented action to shore up banks, insurance companies and investments such as money market mutual funds. Yet, the Bush administration cannot bring themselves to using the “R” word. The Bush administration is in denial.

Good luck to the presidential candidate who will inherit this mess 100 days from now. Whichever candidate that happens to be, we think their first order of business, their top priority, must be to bring American jobs back to America, and to address the trade deficit and our dependence on foreign energy.

Of course, headlines rarely tell the whole story. But my, my, how times have changed. As the above Daily News front page shows, a drop of 12 points in the Dow was big news in 1975. This past Monday, it took a one-day drop in the Dow of 500 points to make Wall Street nervous (which was followed by another drop today, only two days later, of another 450 points). Another day or two of this, and we should be South of 10,000 on the Dow. Throw in a couple more banks or financial giants going belly-up, and you’ll see them skydiving without parachutes on Wall Street.

Oh, and Washington didn’t let New York City drop dead back in 1975, after all. The Federal government agreed to a bailout in the form of $2.3 billion in short-term loans, thereby allowing the City to avoid bankruptcy (read about it at americanheritage.com). These days, $2.3 billion is chump change.

Just how much is $85 billion ? Well, if you were given that much money, in say, ten dollar bills, and were told to count it, how long might that take ? Let’s assume you spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with no breaks. Even if you could count 200 ten-dollar bills ($2,000) every minute, and started counting as soon as you were born, you’d probably never finish before you died. It would take more than 80 years. If it was in one-dollar bills, then it would take you more than 10 lifetimes, and your pile of cash would probably weigh in the neighborhood of 200 million pounds or 91 million kilograms (a rough estimate, since we’ve never actually weighed a stack of money).

$10 x 200 per minute x 60 minutes x 24 hours x 365 days x 80 years = $84 billion ! (You’d still have a billion dollars left to count, and since you’re now 80 years old, there’s a good chance you’d forget how much money you counted, and you’d have to start all over again.) Sort of reminds us of Sisyphus.

We know what you’re probably thinking. You’re probably thinking that we have way too much time on our hands, if we’re calculating how much $85 billion would weigh. Well, it’s a good bet that you haven’t met this fellow yet. Not only did he do the math, he manufactured the bills, took pictures of everything, and created a website about it. Is there anything you CAN’T find on the Internet ? Probably not.

Put another way, $85 billion would easily pay for another fun-filled year of war in Iraq, with billions and billions of dollars left over to spend in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and anywhere else we wish to venture.

Who insures the insurers? You do. The recent bail-outs of Fannie and Freddie, and now AIG, indicates that many people are getting very nervous about the economy. How nervous? Economic collapse nervous. Black Monday, 1929 nervous. Losing your home nervous. Civil unrest nervous.

Better start polishing those apples.

We love some of the nautical references you often see in annual reports and prospectuses, used as euphemisms for real bad financial news . Phrases like “staying the course”, “rough sailing”, “turbulent waters”, “sailing into a headwind”, etc. In our mind, the U.S. economy resembles a ship that is being tossed about by increasingly turbulent seas. As the waves get higher and higher, our ship runs the risk of encountering one that will push it past the tipping point. We think an $85 billion Federal bailout of AIG says that we’re not the only ones worried about the ship going down.

Hey, General Motors… Are you paying attention?

GM has gotten a lot more press than AIG, regarding their hemorrhaging of red ink. In our opinion, all they need to do is a bit more hand wringing, and then show up on Uncle Sam’s doorstep, hat in hand, and ask for a few bucks (see “Detroit wants its bailout too” on cnn.com). How much do you need, Rick ? $100 billion ? $200 billion ? more ? As we’ve written, the death of GM might not be a bad thing, but GM’s demise might scare too many people, so OK, Mr. Wagoner, here’s your money. Next in line ?

And it appears that in the past few days, that line has gotten a lot longer. Another down-on-their-luck financial giant, Lehman Brothers, apparently didn’t get that whole hat-in-hand routine right. Merrill Lynch has sold it’s soul to Bank of America. Do you see a trend developing here ?

It’s a good thing Uncle Sam owns those Intaglio presses, over at The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Who says the Treasury Department doesn’t have a sense of humor ? The BEP website is at “moneyfactory.gov”. But the people at AIG probably think they should call it rescueme.gov. To paraphrase Popeye’s J. Wellington Wimpy, “I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a bailout Today”.

With Walmart’s interest in expanding into banking and financial services, and given Walmart’s runaway profits, we’re kind of surprised there wasn’t a Walmart-AIG merger. It makes a lot of sense to us. They could sell AIG insurance policies at an AIG kiosk in every Walmart store, right next to the toilet paper and Pampers.

The AIG bailout sort of makes the economic stimulus checks the rest of us got from our rich Uncle seem stingy by comparison. It also begs the question… Who’s next ?

All this economic turmoil does have one benefit. Nobody even mentions Iraq anymore !

– Routing By Rumor

P.S. – We found this blogger, who is just as scared about all this as we are. She even chose almost the same title for her post.